On the heels of Forrester’s GRC Market Overview last month, this week we published my Governance, Risk, And Compliance Predictions: 2011 And Beyond report. Based on our research with GRC vendors, buyers, and users, this paper highlights the aggressive regulatory environment and greater attention to risk management as drivers for change

Together they form what I’d call the “privacy GRC” market, where GRC stands for “governance, risk and compliance.” GRC makes up most of what privacy people do.

It’s not a big market. To put things into perspective, Gartner is only in its third year of analyzing the nascent IT GRC market. The privacy GRC market is at the moment no more than just a subset of that.

eGestalt has announced the availability of SecureGRC, a solution that provides an end-to-end integration of security monitoring with IT-Governance, Risk Management and Compliance (IT-GRC) management solutions using a cloud-based delivery model.

There is built in framework support for RBI Compliance, NSE, BSE, MCDEX, PCI, ISO, COBiT, SOX, BASEL II, HIPAA, FISMA, and other country specific frameworks which are ready to use. SecureGRC has a not-so-far-seen value-add in terms of integrating, synergizing and transforming information from various sources into alert raising actionable solutions, helping in identifying the source of the attempted attack through pattern and correlation analysis, and plugging the loop hole before it takes major dimensions.

In my ongoing work with clients, I try as often as possible to stress the importance of flexibility in GRC programs. Internal processes and technology implementations must be able to accommodate the perpetually fluctuating aspects of business, compliance requirements, and risk factors. If GRC investments are made without consideration for likely requirements 1 to 2 years down the road, decision makers aren’t doing their job. And if vendors don’t offer that flexibility, they shouldn’t be on the shortlist.

Aberdeen Group, a well known research organization, is conducting a benchmark survey on IT-GRC. The response from this survey will be the foundation of their IT-GRC report in March.
Participants who respond to the survey (15-30 minutes long) will receive a complimentary copy of the final research report by Aberdeen (a USD 399 value).

Top contenders in the IT governance, risk, and compliance market merged on Tuesday as Archer Technologies announced it is acquiring Brabeion Software. Forrester projected consolidation as a key GRC market trend for 2009, and we explored the issue further for IT GRC vendors in our report, “Consolidation Looms for the IT GRC Market.”

This was a strong move for Archer, as other, larger vendors are closely eying the IT GRC space for acquisition potential. Along with the acquisition of Paisley by Thomson Reuters last month in the Enterprise GRC space, this is just the beginning of what’s to come over the next 12-18 months. The GRC market as a whole is extremely broad and ripe for growth, but it is also crowded with niche vendors. Market leaders and enormous outsiders will be eager to scoop up as much of the pie as possible, which means more deals are on the way.

Keep an eye out in the next week for Forrester’s GRC Trends 2009 report, which will take a look at how a decidedly rocky end of 2008 will impact those responsible for various aspects of corporate governance, risk management, compliance, audit, and finance… as well as the product and service firms that serve them.

One trend that we call out in the report is the impending consolidation of the GRC technology landscape, which is a top-of mind issue for many leading vendors in the space.

Wednesday, Thomson Reuters got an early start on this trend with a definitive agreement to purchase Paisley. A leader in the GRC platform and audit management markets, Paisley will be a strong addition to the company’s Tax and Accounting group.

Concern among businesses about their risk management practices and impending regulatory actions will be a major driver for growth in the GRC market, and considering this significant potential, we expect other attractive acquisition targets in the space to be scooped up over the next 12 months.